Hours before the opening kickoff of the Chicago Bears’ 2025 season, team president and CEO Kevin Warren sent a letter to season ticket holders outlining the team’s plan to host a Super Bowl in a new Arlington Heights stadium as soon as 2031. The Bears’ new stadium will have a fixed roof, keeping out the elements that once provided such a great home-field advantage at Soldier Field.
“We are at a pivotal juncture of the Chicago Bears franchise to build a new stadium, our future home in Arlington Heights, which will require zero state money for construction,” Warren wrote. “This is the year to finalize our stadium plans so we can officially bid to host a Super Bowl as soon as 2031. This is the moment to begin moving toward that future, and we want you with us.”
The Bears’ move to suburban Arlington Heights continues a recent trend of teams in cold-weather cities opting for covered stadiums instead of open-air. The Buffalo Bills and Cleveland Browns both have plans to move into new stadiums that have roofs. This seems to be the best way for cold-weather cities to be awarded a Super Bowl.
Besides wanting a state-of-the-art home for the franchise, one of the goals for most teams is to host a Super Bowl and reap the rewards that can bring. The NFL won’t risk the chance of inclement weather ruining the biggest sports day of the year in the United States, so those cold-weather teams that play outdoors have traditionally been out of luck.
In Buffalo, the Bills are scheduled to open New High Mark Stadium in 2026, while the Browns also have a new indoor stadium in the works that could open by 2029. Most of these new stadiums are also mixed-use developments that include restaurants, entertainment space, tourism attractions and help boost the local economy year-round.
The Bears’ current footprint on the Chicago lakefront wasn’t large enough to accommodate that, though the city and team had both been flirting with finding a solution that would keep them within city limits. That seemed unlikely, though, considering the Bears had bought the 326-acre Arlington Heights property for nearly $200 million in February 2023.
Now, the Bears will focus on building a new stadium that can host Super Bowls and a team that can play in one.